The Shins

The Best Concerts to See in Los Angeles This Week

For any show in town see our regularly-updated concert calendar. Monday, May 13 Torches THE ECHO Torches are an L.A. band (the band that was once Torches in Trees, if your indie rock database needs an update) who've submerged themselves completely in the same kind of anthemic, happy-sad music that ... More >>

Music Picks: Rhye, Papa and Motörhead

The Economics of Music Festivals: Who's Getting Rich, Who's Going Broke?

By Chris Parker It's as though the sad, lamentable death of recorded music was accompanied by a kick-ass wake. Sure, label executives have had to sell their fancy homes and put their kids in public schools, but the rest of us have been feasting on a musical smorgasbord. Nothing better exemplifies ... More >>

Low Cut Connie Is the Coolest Critically Lauded Band That You've Never Heard Of

Low Cut Connie is a band that basically defies all laws about how a band is supposed to make it in 2013. I know this because instead of sending me a CD or asking me to review a show, the duo's singer took me out to lunch and invited my band to open for them. Combustible frontman/upright pianist Ada ... More >>

The Best Concerts in L.A. This Week

Monday, March 4 Jenny O THE SATELLITE Jenny O's just-out new album, Automechanic (on Holy Trinity/Thirty Tigers), is another strong contribution to L.A.'s new-school canyon-country scene. Produced by the supremely versatile Jonathan Wilson, it fits perfectly alongside Father John Misty's recent Fea ... More >>

The Best Concerts To See in L.A. This Weekend: Oct. 12-14

Friday, October 12 Busdriver BOOTLEG THEATER Behold rapper Busdriver, the polysyllabic polymath who is truly, beautifully and persistently on his own thing, including collabs with DIY experimental punk bands and the routine dispensation of Can references. He first blinded minds with a wordcram MC ... More >>

Music Picks: Neil Young, Aimee Mann, Low End Theory Anniversary

Beachwood Sparks Are One of L.A.'s Most Influential Bands You Don't Know

With folk music back in the mainstream consciousness via acts like Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes, the timing for Beachwood Sparks' reunion is right. "I think we were one of the bands that paved the way for that," founding member and bassist Brent Rademaker tells us. He's excited to talk about their new a ... More >>

The Five Most Overlooked Albums of 2012 So Far

This year deserved praise has been heaped upon Frank Ocean's debut Channel Orange, the Flaming Lips' blood vinyl project and Beach House's Bloom. Meanwhile, overrated works like The Shins' Port of Morrow and Passion Pit's Gossamer have been overhyped Lost in the shuffle have been five superb-but-u ... More >>

Six Reasons Why Las Vegas Is the Best Party City In the World

See also: Five Annoying Things About 'The Club' With Spring Break in full swing, ragers will be looking to get outta town for some debauchery the next couple weeks, and the obvious options will come to mind: Miami, Mexico and Vegas. Last week, we did a little pre-vacay pop-in to Sin City to check o ... More >>

Alert: SXSW Coverage Ahead

"What I want from each and every one of you is a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area." -- Tommy Lee Jones, The Fugitive You don't have to spend much time at South By Southwest to know that all of the above building ... More >>

Cassette Tapes Are Back. Ask Your Mom to Mail Your Old Jambox.

"I grew up collecting and listening to cassette tapes and records," said Phil Shaheen, drummer for Los Angeles indie band Tijuana Panthers. "I like the fact that cassettes are in again and that cool little labels are putting them out." The band released its album, Max Baker, as a limited-edition tap ... More >>

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other: Our Off-the-Beaten Path Guide To Summer Festivals

​ One of the best parts about being at a festival are those moments you walk by a stage and have that "what the fuck" moment. It's when you hear something that just doesn't fit. It's the feeling some people probably had at Chaos In Tejas this summer when, coming from Unbroken's set, they stumble ... More >>

Yo Gabba Gabba's 'Party In My City' Entertains Breeding Hipsters and their Kids ("Kidsters"?)

Lina LecaroThe biggest show -and wildest crowd- Nokia Theatre may have ever seen. ​ Kiddie faux-hawks, fashionably mismatched tutu ensembles and tattoos (fake on tykes, real on moms and dads) swarmed upon L.A. Live in downtown this past weekend, when the trendster tyke sensation Yo Gabba Gabb ... More >>

Last Night: Broken Bells ( The Morning Benders) at the Music Box

Timothy NorrisBroken Bells (Mr. Mouse, center and Mr. Mercer, right)​ Broken Bells played their second show in LA in only a few months last night at the Music Box (again, per: memo--it's never to be called "the Henry Fonda" ever again. Easy mnemonic: the Fonda didn't have odd, humongous Hiero ... More >>

Destination Coachella

L.A. bands take to the desert for three days of music overload

Music Picks: Sasha & Kazell, She & Him, Efterklang, Xiu Xiu

Also, Holly Miranda, Les Blanks, Mumiy Troll and others

Preschool Confidential

Season two of seminal kids’ show Yo Gabba Gabba! has arrived. DJ Lance Rock and others attempt to explain its allure

Danger Dude Without Borders

Jeff Antebi

Michael Reich's Videothing.com Captures the Essence of L.A.'s Underground

TV party tonight

Guy Groups: Five Men, One Dish

What exactly are Hot Chip, the Temptations or Pretty Ricky implying when they sing about a singular love?

Alec (who is the same age as Jesus) responds to his critic. Also, a special guest appearance by Judas aka Bob Dylan (you know, the guy from the panty commercial).

I am 33, the same age of Jesus. Clearly those kids in their teens and early twenties who you're meeting have some work to do to get as arrogant as me. But don't worry, sounds like they have plenty of time to catch up!

How We Roll

Derby Dolls: a bout last Saturday; babes in clubland; a dragalicious XXXmas

Bedroom Confidential: New Crop of Boutique Record Labels in Town

Corporate counterparts may want to study this model

Grammy Nominations

If you are the kind of person that actually pays attention to this kind of thing, then here's a full list of this year's Grammy nominees . Yes, Amy Winehouse got a ton of nominations, if she can hold it together until the awards area announced. Kanye West got eight, and we can only hope he gets sh ... More >>

Greetings from Suburbia

The Vegoose Music Festival pleases some of the people some of the time

Vegoose, Day 1

Vegoose Music Festival, Las Vegas, Saturday, October 27. By Randall Roberts Back and forth we walk, through fairway-cut grass, soft and padded on practice fields, the kind that feels really good beneath bare feet. Vegoose day one, and everything is neat and tidy near UNLV. We flow in early, a gentl ... More >>

Vegoose: This is How they Dance

Random observations on dancing at Vegoose and elsewhere: photographs by Timothy Norris Shins fans don't dance. I know this because it was at the beginning of this show that I first discovered that my wristband was in fact MAGIC and offered me backstage access. And free food. And free cocktails. A ... More >>

Rogue Wave, El Rey, 10/11

Rogue Wave El Rey, October 11, 2007 When the red curtains parted, Zach Rogue stood on the drum riser pumping both fists in the air like a prize fighter, while Pat Spurgeon pounded out the beat (and the too long intro) to "Harmonium," the fist track off their new album, Asleep at Heaven's Gate. It's ... More >>

Best Pit Stop in Purgatory

Cha Cha Lounge

Point/Counterpoint: Meet the Battling Brunettes

The latest twee-pop purveyors from the land down under

Seattle's Bumbershoot

The Shins, The Lashes, Panic! at the Disco, The Frames, Wu-Tang Clan and many more descended on Seattle for three days of music, arts and fun. Photo by Marcella D. Volpintesta Seattle Weekly gives you MP3s, pictures, interviews, blogs and more from the weekend's festivities.

Sub Pop One Hummer

By Randall Roberts He’s out there somewhere. I know it. He apparently comes every year. At least that’s what they tell me up in Seattle, where Bruce Pavitt, co-founder of Sub Pop Records, is some sort of minor legend. You know, Bruce Pavitt, the dude with the vision to uncover a few of the gr ... More >>

The (Ugly, Nasty, Pissed) Men Among Children

With Deerhunter, The Horrors and Pissed Jeans

The World According to Björk, Aoki, Tweedy and a Gaggle of Teenage Guitar Girls

Anti-Gravity Rainbow

The Klaxons' Myths of the Near Future

Sales Go Soft. Shins Go Limp. Rock Critics Go Limper.

In the Pink

Shins take a trip to the dark side of the moon

Microsoft Wants to Kill Your iPod, Summer Goes Pop!

We Can Dance if We Want to

Belle & Sebastian at the Bowl

Music Picks

For the week of July 6 -13

Music Picks

For the week of June 29 - July 6

I Come to Your Emo-tional Rescue

A Boy Named Rogue

You know rogue states and Rogaine; now meet Sub Pop’s Rogue Wave

Blender Smoothies

The Scissor Misters

Elation: Still Possible!

A Small New Future

ALEC HANLEY BEMIS on the casualties and survivors in the war between the Cynics and the True Believers

Coming from all over

When It Blows Its Stacks

Neuralgia nostalgia at the Queen Mary